Mari Margil reflects on the shift towards a new system of law in which the rights of nature – including that basic right to even exist – are respected and protected.

In international refugee law, as well as IDP-specific soft law and practice, three forms of durable solutions, namely, local integration, return and relocation, have been recognised and implemented. These have been adopted in the African Union Convention on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) – a regional binding treaty ratified by 33 African states, including Ethiopia. Yet, implementing the treaty and realising durable solutions for IDPs has been difficult. This piece identifies several challenges to achieving durable solutions to violence-induced displacement in Ethiopia and offers some recommendations.

Gautam Bhatia considers how the Kenyan Supreme Court’s judgment in the BBI matter reflects the complexity of applying the basic structure doctrine in a tiered amendment context, where the amendment process explicitly carves out a high threshold of public participation.

Dr Silvia Suteu argues that the BBI saga raises important questions about the interplay between unamendability and participatory constitution-making, and considers the relevance of the participatory nature of the adoption of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution vis-à-vis the acceptance or rejection of unamendability in the BBI case.

Following the decision of the Kenyan Supreme Court in the matter concerning the BBI Bill, Dr Linda Musumba examines the meaning of “public participation” as required by the Kenyan Constitution.

The post-apartheid era has seen the golden age of transformative laws and policies, providing rights and legal entitlements for the previously disadvantaged within South Africa. However, in as much as South Africa has celebrated over 28 years of democracy, that democracy can rightly be argued to exclude non-South Africans. Do we intend to equally provide basic rights to all persons within our borders or is South Africa a rainbow nation that only loves certain colours of the rainbow?

Dr Stefanie Rothenberger, head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Rule of Law Programme for Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa, reflects on the Kenyan Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Building Bridges Initiative with Dr Willy Mutunga, the former Chief Justice of Kenya.

Climate change is described as the ‘ultimate threat multiplier’. Changes to the natural environment put pressure on social, economic and political systems. As a threat multiplier, climate change exposes and exploits existing vulnerabilities. It worsens pre-existing tensions, weak governance and other socio-economic factors.

The Ukrainian refugee crisis has exposed multifaceted layers of discrimination, racism, and prejudice towards “the other” by European and Western states.   Despite the condemnation of differential treatment and racism against non-Ukrainian refugees and the implementation of protective measures for all refugees, differential treatment and double standards continue to manifest in practice.

Cross border climate change displacement and its impact on children are international concerns which will not disappear anytime soon. Therefore, research and policymaking efforts must be increased to ensure the protection of the rights of these children.

The majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is an absolutely negative lesson for the African region and African women. Its refusal to recognise women with unwanted pregnancy as gendered moral subjects with decisional constitutional authority in respect of abortion is a manifest denial of the equality and human dignity of women.

This post reflects on the peculiarities marking the application of several human rights in migration controls on the African continent, with a focus on how States often contradict regional and sub-regional treaties.

Unconstitutional changes of government constitute a grave danger to the stability and consolidation of democracy in Africa. The recent wave of coups d’état in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger – coming at a time of unprecedented poverty and threats of famine initially caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and now aggravated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – is likely to provoke more political instability.

In the run-up to the World Congress, ALM and the IACL-AIDC blog present a new series as a foretaste of the brilliant thinking that will be in evidence at the Congress. We will feature some of our wonderful plenary speakers as well as members of the Programme Commission and some members of the Executive Committee of the IACL who have constructed the programme. Our theme for the conference is ‘Constitutional Transformations’.

The African Commission and African Court have made important contributions towards furthering rights protected by the African Charter. However, without sufficient compliance mechanisms, what is the significance of rich jurisprudence beyond academic interest? There is a serious culture of non-compliance and non-enforcement, which undermines the legitimacy and credibility of the Commission and Court’s judgments and orders.